"Check status! Open my status! One look please!"

  While running down the corridor, her status opened up with the symbols and Idalia gasped at the sight. She didn't imagine seeing such amazing things there.

  ??? [Skills] ???

  "Yay! Done!" She giggled. Then she saw light at the end of the hall.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Idalia burst out from the hole in the tall structure where they had resided, with Kelix trailing behind. They skipped into the open field, which was brimming with crumbled structures.

  At that moment, Idalia's ears twitched. She could feel it, see it far beyond. The distant hum of engines rolled closer. Her [Spatial Sight] flared.

  [Spatial Sight: Active]

  A thousand threads of light carved through the night; energy trails, flux veins, the shimmer of ships cloaked in illusions. But one burned brighter than the rest.

  There, she saw on one of the flagship's decks, moving like a wisp of light through clouds… and in the chaotic mass—she spotted something familiar.

  Pink. Familiar. Sweet-smoke-and-flower scent.

  "Kelix!" Her tail thumped, snapping sparks from the debris. "There! That one! The girl! I… I know her!"

  He adjusted, expression perplexed, brow knitting. "Wait. What? Where?"

  Idalia's pupils narrowed to pinpoints. "On that ship! That pretty one with the pink petals on the sails! I met her moons ago. Vestella! She's there!"

  He blinked, following her trembling claw toward the largest vessel. It was a sleek behemoth of metal and mana, its hull marked with the Wanderan crest. "You know someone on a Wanderan flagship?" he asked, incredulous. "That's—"

  "Too slow!" Idalia cut him off. "We're not waiting for slow! We can hop!"

  "Idalia, those ships are above orbit. Even you can't ju—" Kelix's words caught as he looked at her, then uncertainly at his hands. "That ship isn't a playground."

  "Pssh! Playground? I don't care! Playground, battlefield, whatever! I'm going to see her! I—I have to!"

  "Idalia…"

  She looked up at him, eyes blazing with her signature feral determination. "You said next time we get stronger, right? This is next time! I want to find her! She helped me once—she might help us now!"

  Kelix stared at her, silent, the wind tugging at his torn coat. Behind them, the island rumbled under descending engine heat.

  Finally, he exhaled through his teeth. "…You're troublesome... but my trouble. Let's go."

  "Mm-hm!" she chirped brightly, already shaping the portal. "But fast!"

  She roared [Portal Roar]. The rift pulsed open, smelling faintly of ozone and burnt sugar. Kelix's presence may have screamed no, but Idalia was already halfway through, tail lashing with excitement.

  "Idalia, wait, maybe—!"

  Too late. She grabbed his wrist with her tail, grinning up at him with fangs flashing. "You said not to jump alone!"

  Then she yanked.

  The world cracked.

  Pressure folded, space twisted, and the ruins vanished in a blink replaced by the cold, shimmering void between clouds. They shot upward, tumbling through distortion, as Kelix's lightning surged instinctively to shield them from collapse.

  "Idalia!" he barked, trying to stabilize the fold. "You don't even know where this goes!"

  "Don't care!" she shouted back over the roar of tearing air. "It smells like her! That means close!"

  Through the chaos, Kelix expression straightened as he caught the briefest glimpse of her grin, wild, fearless, alive, before a Wanderan cruiser filled their view, enormous and blinding with reactor light.

  In that instant, alarms flared across the hull as sensors locked onto them.

  Kelix swore. "We've been—!"

  "Landing!" she sang.

  She growled a gleeful sound, twisting space one last time right as the world split open in white light and gravity inverted.

  Bam! They slammed into the deck's plating with a metallic crash. Kelix groaned, half-buried in smoke. Idalia popped up beside him, unfazed, tail flicking happily. The aroma of wood and metal met her. She sniffed, scanning, eyes glowing with feral clarity. There, behind the polished walls, was Vestella.

  "See? Told you! Found it!" she beamed, pointing at the insignia across the hull: a pink petal, faintly glowing. "Vestella's clan mark!"

  Kelix dragged a hand down his face, still sparking from the reentry. "You realize we just portal-hopped into enemy orbit because you smelled a girl who once gave you food?"

  Idalia nodded, utterly serious. "Yes."

  A pause.

  "…You're impossible."

  "Mm. But I'm right," she purred.

  Before he could retort, her ears twitched. Through the faint hum of engines and pressurized metal, she heard soft footsteps, lighter than any guard's. A voice, faint but real, echoing from beyond the corridor hatch.

  "Vestella," Idalia whispered, eyes wide, heart hammering.

  She looked up at Kelix, tail curling with excitement. "Told you."

  Kelix sighed, electricity crawling along his arms again. "Fine. Lead the way, then."

  Her grin widened, sharp and proud. "Don't fall behind."

  Without another word, Idalia darted toward the airlock, footsteps sparking against the metal floorboard, as she headed toward the heart of the Wanderan ship.

  CLANG. "ALERT! ALERT!"

  The railway walls' lights flared red. Suddenly, a hundred armored Wanderans appeared from the alcoves and platforms above, rifles and blades aimed squarely at them. Strangely, the air thickened under the surge of mag-pressures and psychic suppressors.

  Kelix's gaze flicked over the field where sleek walls gleamed with pale light, sigil panels breathing like living things. His voice dropped low. "Stay sharp. They've already—"

  A voice barked, "Halt!"

  Dozens of armored soldiers with hoods flooded the walkway from both sides. Their armor glinted silver-red, curved like petals yet rigid as glass. Plasma spears hissed to life, boxing the pair in.

  Idalia's lips peeled back in a snarl. "Oh, this again," she muttered, crouching low. "We can take—"

  Kelix's arm shot out, halting her. His eyes darted, reading the patterns of energy. "…These aren't simple guards. They're Vaetorian Vanguard."

  One stepped forward, visor reflecting the glow of Idalia's claws. "Unregistered entities aboard the Luminous Pearl. You will surrender for inspection."

  Idalia tilted her head, tail lashing. "Surrender means bite first, right?"

  "No." Kelix's voice was flat.

  "Right," she said cheerfully, crouching lower anyway.

  Before the soldiers could advance, a new sound silenced them when a clear, crisp clack of wood tapped against metal. Every soldier froze and turned. From the end of the hall, she appeared, but gliding rather than walking, robes whispering around her ankles like petals in wind.

  Vestella!

  To Idalia, she was exactly as remembered, yet impossibly different.